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Father of the Man: A Novel
A stunning literary a powerful love story informed by ghostly
demarcations between World War II and the Vietnam War.
It's just after dawn, June 6, 1982: "Dutch" Potter, an upstate New York bus
driver and father of a soldier who's been missing in action in Vietnam for twelve
years, snaps and dons his World War II army uniform, collects passengers aboard his BC Transit bus, then veers off route, careening into the woods of northern Pennsylvania, where he holds seven hostages to his one return my son.
This wild ride, taking us from New York to Normandy to Southeast Asia by way of Dutch's memories, hopes, and despair, is rendered in mesmerizingly lyrical prose-ranging in tone from bardic to barfly-and forms a brilliantly layered and nuanced narrative. As FBI helicopters whir and command centers are jerry-built, Dutch readies himself for an armed confrontation with federalauthorities, while his family and close-knit community are thrown into sudden and dramatic action. Father of the Man reveals itself to be a love not only between father and son, but between husband and wife, mother and child, the living and the dead.
Dutch Potter takes us, along with his hapless passengers, beyond the safe, the ordinary, to a heart of darkness.
demarcations between World War II and the Vietnam War.
It's just after dawn, June 6, 1982: "Dutch" Potter, an upstate New York bus
driver and father of a soldier who's been missing in action in Vietnam for twelve
years, snaps and dons his World War II army uniform, collects passengers aboard his BC Transit bus, then veers off route, careening into the woods of northern Pennsylvania, where he holds seven hostages to his one return my son.
This wild ride, taking us from New York to Normandy to Southeast Asia by way of Dutch's memories, hopes, and despair, is rendered in mesmerizingly lyrical prose-ranging in tone from bardic to barfly-and forms a brilliantly layered and nuanced narrative. As FBI helicopters whir and command centers are jerry-built, Dutch readies himself for an armed confrontation with federalauthorities, while his family and close-knit community are thrown into sudden and dramatic action. Father of the Man reveals itself to be a love not only between father and son, but between husband and wife, mother and child, the living and the dead.
Dutch Potter takes us, along with his hapless passengers, beyond the safe, the ordinary, to a heart of darkness.
- GenresFiction
240 pages, Hardcover
First published October 22, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 26, 2018
A beautifully realized character study of a WWII vet and Vietnam dad who loses it rather spectacularly. I loved the sudden, sparklingly brilliant sentences peppered throughout the novel, which itself mostly a linear storyline with occasional forays into stream of consciousness. The sudden resolution of the hostage situation surprised me quite a bit, and I wondered if the book lost its trajectory a bit somewhere in that last third. Still, I loved the ending, and the portrait early on of Dutch, the father/main character, as an aging know-it-all who becomes obsessed with a hokey movie about POWs, was great.
July 8, 2020
Great Vietnam/WW2 read. The main character is someone I both loved and hated. Powerful book about the love of a father for his child.
October 8, 2021
What gorgeous writing!
December 7, 2015
Plot-driven.
Not "about" Vietnam. The MIA description is a contrivance for a hostage story.
Some father/son relationship themes, but mostly a linear action story. Flipped-out guy hijacks a bus and demands the recovery of his MIA son. Improbable instant-delivery of 18yr prisoner of war.
Not "about" Vietnam. The MIA description is a contrivance for a hostage story.
Some father/son relationship themes, but mostly a linear action story. Flipped-out guy hijacks a bus and demands the recovery of his MIA son. Improbable instant-delivery of 18yr prisoner of war.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews